Czech Republic
Prague Street Musicians
Simon Griffith, producer of "Rick Steves' Europe," talks about filming the show:
"Prague was the last city we filmed during a three-week trip, and its liveliness seemed to invigorate all of us. Perhaps, because of the changes that Prague has undergone in recent years, Rick's connection with his Czech friends Lida and Josef in the following video clip helps personalize the city and its history. When we began taping the Prague Castle Orchestra in the old town square, two problems arose. First, in order to record a song, we needed the orchestra to repeat the same piece again and again while we shot various angles. The audience quickly became bored and began leaving. We had to get the orchestra to alternate between a ‘crowd-pleaser’ song that attracted the audience and yet another performance of ‘our’ song.
"While we were shooting these ‘repeat-performances’ a bigger problem developed. The police informed us we needed a permit to film in the square. After some animated debate between the orchestra members and the police, a deal was struck. A few minutes later our Czech friend Honza arrived carrying several large glasses of wonderful Prague beer in each hand. Happily for us, the police seemed quite content to replace paperwork with pilsner...."